With over thirty years of experience and more than one thousand tax executive placements conducted, I have a deep understanding of what tax executives face when searching for a new head of tax role. This post is intended to educate you that the process of securing a head of tax role has changed over the years and knowing this information will give you a huge advantage. I will share with you my deep expertise in helping you in the process. You are going to learn what really happens behind the scenes on a job search. There is knowledge most tax executives do not have about a tax executive search, and it is important that you know this information to protect yourself.
Did you ever find yourself sending resumes into companies resume portals and never hearing back from them except for the standard letter?… “We will review your qualifications and get back to you if we have any interest.” What happens is that your resume goes into what we know as the big unknown hole…the resume portal. You never hear back from anyone about your qualifications for the open tax job. Believe me, A.I. is not offering any better results in connecting you to the companies. Your resume is just more data for the company to have and hold or the outside party service provider to manage and hold. The problem is companies are collecting all your personal resume data, and you ultimately lose your privacy. If they collect your data from you, they own it. Are you aware that these online platforms are selling your data to make money? Yes, you are the product they are selling. My biggest concern is these sites are selling your online activity and engagement to your employers. In other words, your employers can buy what activity you are engaged in online because these companies may sell it. They can find out how much time you are spending throughout your workday on the site, and they can tell what you are looking at on these mega sites. Your activity is tracked to sell to buyers of your data and engagement activity. What you may think is a free service promoting your professional profile is not free at all. The cost is that your data is sold as a commodity to anyone who will pay for it. The collection of your data and activity is how these mega sites make money. My biggest concern, and should be your concern, too, is let’s say your employer decides to do a major layoff throughout the company so they go to buy their employees activity on their sites. Therefore, if they check on your online activity and see you spend a couple of hours a day looking at tax jobs; what would they think about that as they contemplate a layoff? My advice to clients is to use a spouse or partners email when you go looking for a new tax job, so a tax executive job search is never traced back to you. You can also contact me at ki***@******ch.com and request our private placement services where we thoroughly research the market for you which maintains your privacy.
Another important fact that recruiters never tell you is that all companies may not pay a recruiter’s fee thinking they can locate the talent pool on their own. You speak to a tax recruiter, and they may not call you back. Why is that? Recruiters who work on a retainer agreement are the ones who get paid by the company upfront a partial fee, and a completion fee when the tax executive is found and starts. However, what these recruiters may not tell you is that the company advertising the tax job may push the recruiters away because they refuse to pay a fee and the tax executive never gets you through the front door to interview for the tax role. This results in opportunities being missed by the tax executive. Our firm wanted to ensure this never happens, so we built a special search service that ensures every effort is made to get you through the front door, no matter what… we want that connection to happen for you. If you want to know how we ensure the tax executive is presented to the company, please reach out to me at ki***@******ch.com. I will explain the service we offer that makes opportunities happen for you.
Another issue tax executives need to be alerted to is compensation trends. We are seeing a trend of tax executive compensation being posted as lower than what the market is paying for tax expertise. The tax executive job along with the compensation being posted is often advertised as lower than qualified tax executives are currently making. What we believe is happening is AI is gathering salary information from the job boards. It is a fact companies list the highest amount they are willing to pay. Nearly ninety-five percent of the companies who retain us on a search for a management level tax executive make an offer higher than the numbers posted online. In my opinion, AI is causing salary suppression and AI generated data is making it much harder for companies to attract the high caliber tax executive talent they want because the salaries they are promoting online are suppressed. My advice to every senior tax executive is you need to hire a Talent Agent with deep knowledge on compensation for tax executives to represent you to any company if you want to be compensated fairly. I say consider yourself a technical tax athlete. You need an agent representing you.
We spend a lot of time negotiating with the employer upfront to correct the compensation challenges, and you need to be aware that this salary issue exists. It is a very real problem that needs to be addressed appropriately If the tax job being posted online has a compensation range that you believe is too low…you are likely right. It is a sensitive topic to discuss and negotiate so you are in a better position to have an experienced recruiter negotiate your salary for you.
If you want to learn how to create an advantage in your search for a senior tax executive role, please call me and I will share a special service where we do all the private and heavy work on searching for a new tax job. Contact ki***@******ch.com or text 858.232.4415
